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Wallace Whitewash Watch


Alfred_Russel_Wallace_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_14558.jpgNatural selection’s co-discover, Alfred Russel Wallace, is coming up to the hundred-year anniversary of his death, and meanwhile his correspondence has just been put online. I told you earlier: “As we approach the Wallace death centennial, you will hear a lot about how he ‘pre-empted,’ but very little about he ultimately came to reject, Darwin.”
So far I’m being proven absolutely correct. New Scientist has an “interview” with Wallace, drawing on actual letters that he wrote. Cute idea, but it’s predictably pale stuff, including a memory of a fire aboard the ship that took him to Brazil to collect specimens, and reflections on the coincidence that Wallace and Darwin were both “ardent beetle-hunters.” Wow, controversial!
But any mention of the fact that Wallace came to embrace, over strict Darwinism, a proto-intelligent design view, as Michael Flannery has emphasized many times here? Not a word.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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